Father, we're thankful for the mercies you've showered upon us in the Gospel. We're thankful for your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have access to your presence. We're thankful for the promises that you give to your children who gather in the name of our Lord Jesus, that you will make us to be a habitation of God through the Spirit. We come and you will dwell in your people. In whatever way we gather, we're thankful we have the promised presence and pray that you would draw near to your people this morning, and that you would be pleased to give us light and understanding into the word of your truth. We ask you to hear our prayers. We ask you to bless us this day and keep us in your care. And for Jesus' sake, we pray, amen. I guess it was back in our annual meeting last year that we did talk about church leaders. We talked about the office of the elder and the deacon. And the suggestion was made then that I'd use some instruction on the subject of biblical offices, and it's something I readily responded to as a good idea. It's been a while since we have done this. And so when I came to the end of our studies of the book of Colossians and was looking to consider, should I just delve right into the pastoral letters or maybe hold off? I'm sorry, not Colossians, it was Philemon, I guess, was the last letter that we looked at. I just thought that it might be good to just do something different for a little while before getting into the pastoral letters, and then Vivian made the suggestion, or she reminded me, of my promise to do something on biblical offices, and so I want to begin that this morning, and I tell you right now, I don't think it is fully developed in my mind how I want to approach this as I hopefully will in coming weeks, but I want to just get our toes into the water a bit and just begin the subject. And for me to begin any subject of Scripture is usually to try to see if there are not some ways in which the New Testament teaching that we're mostly familiar with might have some parallels in Old Testament patterns. I think that is an important consideration. Particularly when we think of church, and we think of church leadership, and we think of church worship, and everything to do with the work of the church, I think it is an apparent truth that when we look at the differences in churches, which denominations think of themselves, that people look to different models. And I think in so many of the sacramental churches, so many of the churches that have ornate liturgies and have priests with vestments and crowns and miters and such, and there's a real rich display of things pertaining to sight and sense and smell. And some people have said there's people who believe worship should be done, as Jesus said, in spirit and in truth, and some believe in sight and in smell. And people that take the sight and smell option, are largely looking to the Old Testament, and particularly the Old Testament temple worship with the priesthood, with the incense, with all the things that you see in temple worship that I don't believe really carries over any more than the office of the priest carries over into the New Testament. You just don't see New Testament leaders or officials or office bearers in the Church of the New Testament being considered as priests, Jesus is our great high priest. He's the one in whom all that Old Testament typology is fulfilled in. And we are priests unto God in the sense that we are his worshipers who offer to him the sacrifice of our bodies, our prayers, our praise, our monetary offerings that are priests, we do believe in the universal priesthood of access in one spirit to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's clear to me that the pattern of the temple and tabernacle are not what we look to in terms of biblical leadership, but that doesn't mean there are not Old Testament patterns. In fact, the very language that the New Testament uses for the biblical office has a rich rootage in the Old Testament Scriptures. So I want to say something about the Old Testament. I'm not going to say all that I might say, but give you a little bit of a sense of the fact that how the Church carries out its business. It's not just a question, as often is said, while the Church was concerned to mimic the synagogue. Well, okay, people say that, and there may be an element of truth in it, but there's more than just a synagogue. A lot of the synagogue worship might in itself have been patterned by Old Testament teaching as well. Again, not the temple or the tabernacle so much as the other ways in which leadership was expressed in the Old Testament. Now, if I was to ask you—and this is the same question, and you don't have to unmute your mic and speak up, but if I was to ask you, what book in the Old Testament might you find principles of leadership, Old Testament patterns, that might have something to say to the question of New Testament leadership, what book of the Old Testament might you think of? I'll give you a minute to just consider that. It might surprise you to think that my answer would be the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers. Now some of you know that I've been reading through commentary on the Book of Numbers by Michael Morales, and it's something he emphasizes, and I think it's something to be emphasized, that in the Book of Numbers you have the formation of the people of Israel as a people, to march through the desert, to go up to the land of Canaan, to enter into the land an army, a host of people that conquer the Canaanites. and that dwell in that land. And the question of leadership comes up again and again in the book of Numbers. The book of Numbers begins with the numbering of the people in the first chapter of the book of Numbers. And I want you to see how that is expressed, the numbering of the people, and leadership in that whole process of the numbering of the people. So if you turn to Numbers chapter 1, I want to read how the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Eden, that's the first verse, one year after the second year after he had come out of the land of Egypt, and this is what he says, he says, take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of the names of every male, head by head. And as you read on, you see the purpose is that these are the numbers of the people, who would be made eligible for war. They would be 20 years and upward able to go to war. And they are to be numbered to have a sense of what their resources are in terms of their army. But they're to be taken out of the clans, and likely those are the tribes of Israel that are, again, mentioned in the ensuing context. But each of these clans, each of these tribes, they had a tribal chief. They had a tribal leader. And the names of the tribal leaders are given in verse, I think, 5 to verse 15. And then in verse 16, it says this. It says, these were the ones chosen from the congregation, the chief of the ancestral tribes, the heads of the clans of Israel. they came out of the congregation, and they seem to have been recognized within the congregation. Now, I'm not going to make a big point of it, but I did think there was something of the tribal recognition. There was something of the tribal entrance into determining who is worthy to be our leader, who is worthy to be a tribal leader. There might have been people that were senior to the ones that were actually the tribal chiefs that are mentioned here. We're not told the ages of these people. We're not told their power, their wealth, their attainments, their But we are told that the people in the congregation recognized them and knew them and chose them, and they were set apart because the people that knew them best felt that they were best capable and able to be leaders of the congregation. And so I think there's something of the principle of what we call today congregational suffrage even being exercised in the Book of Numbers. In other words, there's not to be some external power that determines who your pastors should be. There's no central agency somewhere, congregational headquarters, that says, oh, Pine Bush needs a congregational leader. They need a pastor. So we'll choose who we send to Pine Bush. And that's the sort of stuff that's done in a lot of churches, where there's hierarchy, whether it be a bishop who sends out people in different dioceses to be the priests or the the leaders of each individual congregation, or any kind of hierarchical rule is something I think is discouraged in the Bible. And we're going to see in the New Testament there was seemingly, in the choice of elders, a recognition of the people as to the qualifications and the capability and the trust that the people resided in their congregational leaders. So that's a very important element. that people will not sit over the congregation, and the people think, how do we get this guy here? Well, how you got him here is you chose him. It's basically how it should be. It was your choice. And it's not an irrevocable choice, it's not as if someone who becomes an elder is an elder for life, but he's an elder as long as he's able to demonstrate capability and trust among the congregation. Because, again, leadership in the Bible is not hierarchical, it's not monarchical, it's not like a king exercising power and authority because he's bigger or stronger than others, or he has a bigger army. No! It's a position of service to the congregation. Leaders are the servants of God. Leaders are the servants of the congregation of God. And hence they're to serve with the confidence and trust that the people reside in them, And once the people of God cease to place confidence in them, they're no longer fit to be leaders of the assembly. So that's the first thing I would say from the book of Numbers. It's an important principle that we'll see in the New Testament as well. There is to be this matter of congregational suffrage. And you see it in chapter 2, that these leaders also take center stage not only in the naming or the census for the people able to go to war, but also in the arrangement of the camp. That's in chapter two, as the camp is arranged in terms of the tribes around the tabernacle. Again, it is the leaders or the chiefs of the people that are set out as central to that work as well. So every tribe is to have its leader and its chief, and they serve the tribe as the tribe functions within the framework of the larger nation, and they're known by their tribe, and they're trusted by their tribe, and hence they're able to exercise that work and to perform that work. Now in chapter 11, another thing entering in on the subject of leadership, I think, comes to light, and that's the fact that the people again are demonstrating their reluctance to follow the Lord and to follow his servant Moses. We find that they're complaining about their misfortunes in the very first verse of chapter 11, and that then when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled, a fire burned among them, consumed parts of the outlying parts of the camp, the people cried out to Moses, And Moses prayed to the Lord and the fire died down. So again, they'll complain, complain, complain, complain. When the trouble comes, they know who their leaders are and who it is that can pray for them, intercede for them, even though they're difficult to rule, they're difficult to lead, there's difficulty in having them comply. And then it goes on to the fact that the rabble they're called in verse 4, they possess this strong craving. This strong craving had to do with food. Again, matters of food. Food and drink were things that you see in the book of Exodus. They're replicated in the book of Numbers as well. Before Sinai, after Sinai, this people had not really changed. And they cry out, oh, that we had meat to eat in verse 4. Remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing. the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and all of it, made it better, made it better. What are we doing out here in this desert? And they're looking back to the past, and they're glorifying it, they're idealizing their life in Egypt, forgetting about the cruel bondage they were under, they forgot about the oppression and the suffering and the afflictions that they had experienced. Now they were just hungry, and they remembered they had food. They were just fleshly people out for their own bellies, Think of Paul's statement about the people whose God is their belly, and his end is destruction. And then they looked at God's provision. God's provision of the manna was a wonderful provision. It was an adequate provision. It was a nourishing provision. The manna was like coriander seed, we're told, the appearance like vedellum. And they had all kinds of ways to prepare the manna. They gathered it, they ground it in hand mills, they beat it in mortars, they boiled it in pots, they made cakes of it. Kind of a lot of diversity. You could prepare manna and prepare it in interesting ways. The taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. That's good. Cakes baked with oil. Tony will tell you, if you put a little cinnamon on it, it's wonderful. Tony brought me something that had that very taste to it. Well, anyway, I don't know if you can do that with manna. But there were ways to season it up. There was ways to make it taste better. And it was fine. Nothing wrong with it. Healthy, nutritious, adequate. And it was from heaven. God made this provision. Be it there, they're satisfied with it. This same old manna, this stuff that we have to eat. Give us meat that we may eat. We don't want this same old manna all the time. And as a result, Moses is perplexed, and he's troubled, and he then is displeased, apparently not just with the people, but with the Lord. The fact that He alone is sent to lead the people. Why have you dealt—this is verse 11—why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight that you lay the burden of all this people on me. OK, they're in trouble. They come to me. I pray you hear my prayers are delivered. But then I still have to bear with their constant murmuring and grumbling and complaining. And it's just too big a weight. Can't carry them. He says. Do I give birth to them? That you should say, carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child to the land that you swore to give to their fathers? Where am I to get meat to give to all these people? He feels the sense of the burden, he feels the sense of the weight that is upon him, and he has the sense of all alone in the doing of it. And what God does is God lightens the burden upon the shoulders of Moses by appointing for him, not just the 12 chiefs of the tribes, and not just the judges that we find in Exodus 18, but now there's 70 men of the elders of Israel. He's going to be joined by elders in the nation, 70 men, whom you know to be elders of the people and officers over them. I think the principle you would get here, number one, is that there needs to be plurality of leadership, particularly if the number of the disciples grow in any significant way. Because with every addition to a church, problems come into the church life, and leadership shouldn't be all upon one person's shoulders. There's also a principle here that those that are entrusted with this office of an elder are people that are already known to be elders of the people, officers over them. See, the language, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them. So in other words, when it came about that these men were appointed to be elders over the congregation, helpers to Moses, giving aid to him in his leadership, the people would look at them and say, what then? Why would they be elders? They give no—I mean, they're not even old. They're not even elder. And if they're elders, they're fools. Why should they be elders of the people in any way of significant leadership among the people? But the point is, they're qualified and they're known already to be exercising some form of leadership among the people of Israel, officers over them. So even before they're set apart, They're known to be elders already, and that's significant. That you don't just say, well, we need elders because, well, the number of people we have is X, and so the number of leaders we should have is Y. We have churches that practice this. We have a quota that has to be filled. If one elder retires, resigns, moves away, well, we have to get somebody else into the office. Now, we functioned in churches or knew of churches. You probably know some of these churches as well. They not only fill the office, they demand you put two people forward at least and have a vote. It turned in as a sort of a political thing as to who has most popularity to become a leader. No, people have to be able and recognized to be elders already, and if you don't have them, you don't have them. You have to deal with—you have to go with less. If, in this case, there was not 70 men to be found in Israel who were known to be elders and officers over them, I don't think Moses would have appointed them. They had to be men qualified for the office, and not just because, well, there's a vacancy that has to be filled. And so you have the plurality of leadership They have the qualified men in the middle of the Biblical office. Then, of course, what goes on, what goes on to happen is these qualified men joining Moses in leadership are further set apart by the fact that God says, I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, that they may bear the burden of the people with you, that you may bear it, not bear it yourself alone. there is the qualification of the Holy Spirit gifting them to fulfill the office. Again, they were met with some measure of at least competency and capability, but yet now a supernatural endowment of the Spirit is given to them that they would bear the burden with Moses, and so they'll have wisdom. Again, when the deacons are chosen in the Book of Acts, the criteria is, choose out from among yourselves seven men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom that we may set forth in the matter. Their spiritual qualifications were primary. To do the work of leadership in the Church of God, to do the work of leadership among the people of God, the people had to be endowed with the Spirit, just as Moses. was endowed with the Spirit, just as Joshua, his successor, is endowed with the Spirit. God's people are to be led by Spirit-filled men. That's to be their key qualification. And then there's another thing to consider, because Moses, in his leadership of the nation, particularly in the Book of Numbers, you find challenges that were given to Moses' leadership. opposition that he faced to his leadership. Others who felt his leadership was, oh, just not to be as primary as it was. The first opposition, unfortunately, was from his own brother and sister, Miriam and Aaron, in chapter 12. We read that Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married. And we don't actually know was for certain who the Kushite woman was. It's a possibility. It was Zipporah. And we're just not told the fact that there was a darkness of her skin, that she was identified as a Kushite woman. Kush was Sudan. Yeah, I think I'm right to think it was modern Sudan, that region south of Egypt, and the characteristic skin color of those people was dark. And so this was something, maybe it was some incipient racism on their part, or just that she was not part of the clan that Israel came from, a foreign woman, and he had married her. And they were upset at that, and they spoke against him, and they said, has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also? Are we not also the vehicles of divine revelation? That's interesting. It seems to me that God speaking to Aaron always seemed to be through Moses. I could be corrected on that, but I'm pretty sure that most of the time words were given to Moses to direct Aaron in what Aaron was supposed to do. Words of direct speech to Aaron, I should have thought to look it up, but I can't recall offhand words of direct speech. If there were words of direct speech, it might not have been pleasant. It might have been a word of rebuke, maybe out of the building of the golden calf, but I think mostly it was through Aaron, through Moses, that Aaron received the word of God. And yet there is this complaint, has he only spoken through Moses? Well, what about us? Are we nothings in Israel? Think of Miriam. Miriam had those words of prophecy, and we just called her prophet in Exodus, where she led the congregation and the women in worship at the Red City. the son of Miriam and Moses. Well, what about her? Hasn't God also spoken through Miriam? It might have been that Miriam was the leader. Maybe she was the one who was most envious or concerned about the wife that Moses had married. Again, we don't know. It's reading between the lines. But the fact is, the Lord heard it, we're told. And then we're told, in the light of what God is about to do, something about the quality of Moses, this man in leadership. And it's really set up against Aaron and Miriam, I would think. Why are we told in verse 3 that the man Moses was very meek, more than all of the people that were on the face of the earth? Principally because Miriam and Aaron's actions were not very meek at all. They were reactions of self-interest, reactions of pride, reactions that were really unjustified. There was venom in their words, there was bitterness in their words—just the opposite of meekness, that submits to the will of God. Meekness will submit to God. It's an absence of self-will and a submission to God's will. And meekness is also an absence of ill will and the presence of good will. Miriam and Aaron don't seem to be submitting to God's will. They don't seem to be filled with goodwill. They seem to be filled with self-will and ill-will towards Moses. And in contrast, look at Moses. Moses is the ideal servant leader because he's meek, meekest man upon the face of the earth. You know, the whole question of mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch is something I would generally affirm, but I think there's some statements. I don't think meek Moses said that. I think it's a report that's given about Moses by someone else, whether it was Joshua, who knows who it was that is responsible for this information about Moses's character. But it does seem it would be not a meek thing to be reporting your own meekness in a book. That's just a personal opinion. He may well have done that. But anyway, Moses' meekness was a prerequisite for leadership. And then another thing that's a prerequisite for leadership is not only humility and meekness, the absence of ill will to others and good will to others, and the absence of self-will and submission to God's will, But God says in verse 6, hear my words, if there's a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make myself known to him in a vision. I speak with him in a dream, not so with my servant Moses. So God takes the initiative and all the revelation he gives. But Moses is a man whom he initiates a relationship with who is different than the rest. He is faithful in all of my house. With him I speak mouth to mouth clearly, not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" So again, it's God who takes the leadership in this whole matter of setting people apart to the work of the ministry. He sets them apart. We recognize what He has done. And He sets them apart with reference to the in-wrought graces of His Spirit that He works in them, such as the meekness we see in verse 3, and also the faithfulness that Moses displays, being faithful in all of the house of God. Funny, this gets quoted in Hebrews chapter 3, concerning the difference between Moses, who was faithful in the house of God, and Jesus, who is faithful not as a servant like Moses was, but as a son, Then in chapter 5, it speaks about the priesthood, and it's the fact that no man takes the honor to himself, but is appointed by God. God is the one who appoints leadership. God is the one who gifts his leaders the special endowments of his Spirit that enable them to be faithful and to be meek and essential qualities and capable biblical leadership. And then another area of opposition to Moses was found not only in 12 with Miriam and Aaron, but also in the rebellion of Korah. And just to turn there a bit, in chapter 16, we have the rebellion of Korah, Korah the son of Ishar, the son of Korah, the son of Levi, Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, They rose up in verse 2 before Moses with the number of the people of Israel, 250 chiefs of the congregation chosen from the assembly, well-known men, and they assembled themselves together against Moses and against Aaron. And you know what their complaint is? That you've gone too far, is what they say. You've elevated yourself to a place of significance and importance above and beyond. what is proper. You've gone too far. They say, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Very similar to what Miriam and Aaron were saying. Has the Lord only spoken through Moses? Has he also spoken through us? Moses, you've gone too far. All the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourself? above the assembly of the Lord, as if Moses did such a thing. Again, God appointed him. God spoke to him face to face. God set him apart, and he exhibited tremendous measures of humility and meekness in all of his leadership of the people of Israel, a man faithful in all the house of God. And yet they accuse him of self-exaltation. You exalt yourself above the assembly. Moses heard it. And look at what he does. He doesn't respond angrily. He falls on his face in a posture of prayer. Before he speaks, he cries to God, and then he speaks to Korah and his people. And he says in the morning, the Lord will show who are his and who is holy and bring him near to him. And then he concludes by responding to their cry that he has gone too far with a retort that you have gone too far, sons of Levi. He said, I'm exalting myself? No, no, no. The shoe's on the other foot. You have gone too far, sons of Levi. And Moses said to Korah, here now, you sons of Levi, is it too small a thing for you that the God of Israel is a too small a thing for you that the God of Israel has separated you from the congregation of Israel to bring you near to himself, to do service in the tabernacle of the Lord, and to stand before the congregation to minister to them. And he's brought you near him, all, and all your brothers, the sons of Levi, and would you seek the priesthood also." You know, the problem is that they had a significant role to play in the congregation by the call of God. gave them that position as Levites, to serve the congregation. And that should have been enough. That should have been sufficient. The godly will say that they would be content to be doorkeepers in the house of the Lord. They envy the birds that make their nests in the house of God. A small place in God's house is sufficient to fill a little space if you be glorified. There shouldn't be this hankering after leadership. We should be content in our roles. There's a danger in those who aspire to leadership, who have a need for leadership, and are not content to follow. That's what these men were. God had given able, competent leadership in Moses, and they did not like it. They wanted to be the leaders. So I think we can look at this whole question of leaders is, you gotta evaluate their character. Is there this humility? Is there this willingness to humble themselves before the mighty hand of God? to be able to humble themselves before their brothers and sisters. You can't lead if you're not prepared to follow. So, I guess what I'm saying to you is we have all these principles set before us, just only in the book of Numbers, but many other places in the Old Testament as well, where we have a clear pattern set forth as to what constitutes proper, able, biblical leadership. recognized by the congregation with their suffrage, assenting to their leaders, understanding that leadership should not just be alone, but together with others, to work well together with others in the plurality of leaders, the spiritual prerequisite, the absence of self-will and ill-will, the presence of submission to God and goodwill to others, There's to be the contentment, even in those little spaces, of God be glorified, and not aspire to leadership. There has to be the character of leadership. And so when we read Paul giving the statements of the pastoral epistles that the elder must be, or the overseer must be, he's not just drawing upon something pragmatic, he's drawing out something that has always been. what constitutes the qualities of godly leadership. We see it in the Old Testament, and we see it affirmed again in the New Testament as well. Another avenue of interest that I think you find in the Book of Numbers is that at least you have at least two of the names of leadership that's given in the New Testament. Leaders in the New Testament, I guess there's more than three, but at least you have, in terms of the formal offices, the title of an elder, and of a pastor, and of a bishop or an overseer. And as we saw in chapters one and two, you have the elders of the people already set out in the Old Testament, the elders of Israel. The eldership was not just a category that you find in the synagogue that the church emulated, but also in the Old Testament in the way in which the people were led in the life of the nation, and elders were employed by God to that end. And then also the leaders of the people were called pastors or shepherds. And you look at the chapter 27 of the Book of Numbers, and sometimes we think of pastors, well, pastors are servants, pastors are teachers, but leaders, well, Yeah, they are. We find it right here, in chapter 27 and verse 16. As a result of Moses' deadly to uphold the holiness of God with the striking of the rock, Moses spoke to the Lord, saying the fact that he was prohibited from going into the land Verse 12, it says, The Lord said to Moses, Go up into this mountain of Urim, see the land that I've given to the people of Israel. When you've seen it, you shall also be gathered to your people, as your brother Aaron was, because you rebelled against my word. And the wilderness was in, when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy as the waters before their eyes. And so there was God's intent to take Moses in death. And so Moses' response to this in verse 15 is that Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in. So this is the leader. He wants to take the place of Moses, to lead the people. And it goes on to say that this matter of appointing such a man, who turns out, of course, to be Joshua, it says, so that is the reason for this, that the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd. The congregation of the Lord are seen as a flock of sheep requiring a shepherd. I've told you before, in the ancient world, kings would often refer to themselves as shepherds of the people, sometimes as fathers of the nation. And that language does get replicated in biblical statements about leaders of the congregation, that they be fathers of the people they come from, their tribes, their fathers of their tribes, their shepherds of the flock. And one of the models of leadership is that of a shepherd. When God would take up statements against the leaders of Israel, often it would be in the form of upbraiding them, that they have been unfaithful shepherds. We're going to be looking at one of those passages in the future, if weather permits us to meet and we're able to get together in the evenings, in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 23. Jeremiah chapter 23 is a statement that the leaders of the nation to task. And it takes the leaders of the nation to task in the language of verse 1. Woe to the shepherds. Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people, you've scattered my flock and have driven them away and have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you. You've not visited them, I'll visit you. You've not gone out to them, I'm going to come to you. It's not going to be pleasant, it's going to be a judgment. I will gather the remnants of my flock out of the countries where I've driven them. I'll bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply, the language of a new creation. I will set shepherds over them who will care for them. And they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall there be any missing. because they will attend to the flock. They will visit the flock. They will care for the flock. They will provide for the needs of the flock. They will be able and faithful shepherds. And then, of course, among those shepherds, there's the chief shepherd of the sheep. I believe he's in view in verse five. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord. This is Jeremiah 23. When I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, Israel will dwell securely, and this is the name by which he will be called, the Lord is our righteousness." And so there is that hope of the Messianic king, the hope of the righteous branch of David's loins will again ascend to the throne of Israel. He will be the shepherd of the sheep, But there will also be under-shepherds who will shepherd in his name and for his glory and his will in the care of the flock, in the attendance to the needs of the flock. And so when you look at the New Testament, you see that leadership are described in this way of pastors over the flock. It's interesting that Peter, he does make the distinction between the general shepherds, the overseers, the leaders, the elders of the people, and the singular elder, shepherd, overseer of the people, who is the Lord Jesus. When he says in 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 1, he says, so I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. Now, I always find it interesting that the first pope of Rome considers himself a fellow elder of the other elders that he's exhorting, and he takes his place among them. I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. He's addressing church leaders as an apostolic church leader, but yet he sees himself as a fellow with them. He's not superior to them. There's no hierarchy of office. There's a shared labor. And you think about Paul, again, an apostle, often refers to his fellow laborers. And they're not apostles, but yet they are fellow laborers. They're in the same work that he is in. And there is this sense of not being above them, but being a worker together with them. A witness of the sufferings of Christ as well as a partaker. of the glory to be revealed, to shepherd the flock of God that's among you." Again, the elder shepherd. The elders lead the people in the way of shepherding the flock, visiting them, attending to their needs, caring for them, leading them. Exercising oversight, and that's what a bishop is, is to have all these three together. Elders, shepherds, overseers. Be it the way in which this oversight is to be conducted is not under compulsion. You're not looking to compel people to follow you. You're not looking to just throw your weight around and say, hey, I'm the boss around here, so follow me, because I am the elder, I am the shepherd, I am the pastor. Everybody needs to be submissive to me. Not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge. And being examples to the flock, you lead by example. And when the chief shepherd appears, so whatever you're doing as shepherds of the flock, you're not the good shepherd. You're not the chief shepherd. You're not the one who has principle, care, concern, love, sacrifice, commitment to the flock of God's people. It's Jesus who is the chief shepherd who shows all those qualities that you, as an under-shepherd, are simply to emulate Christ. He's to be the one you model your shepherding after. He does not come to domineer over the flock, but he comes and he says, I'm among you as one who serves. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, to give his life a ransom for many. That's to be your attitude, that's to be the way that you shepherd the flock of God. So the leaders of the congregation are to be Christ-like shepherds. Christ is to be the model of true shepherding. They're to take the heart, the warnings of the Old Testament, with respect to unfaithful shepherds, and stand clear of that model, to hold Christ forth as the example that they follow. Again, Christ is the model we follow in everything. To be conformed to the image of Jesus is The goal of all believers is the goal of God and His saving purposes. And yet as leaders, particularly, Christ should be the example of the way we shepherd the flock. And then those that are leaders are elders as well. They're called elders. And again, I think that an elder, it refers to their stature within the congregation. Generally speaking, from an Old Testament point of view, it was the elder, the hoary head, when he walked in the way of righteousness that was to be honored. He was to be seen as someone who is not to be lightly regarded, but someone to be respected. And I think an elder is called an elder not just because he's an old man. It's not just age that sets you apart as an elder over the congregation, although I think aged people should be treated with due respect. It's becoming younger people looking, viewing older people. But the elder, in terms of an office, points out the respectability, the regard that the congregation has for that person. I don't think it so much refers to his work as it does to his person, his esteem that he's held in amongst the congregation. So that's why an overseer is not to be a novice, not to be somebody newly converted. He's not to be somebody who just has a fresh zeal for the gospel, but just no content to it. No, he's to have a well-seasoned faith. But then the other thing that is said about the leaders, they're not only shepherds, who attend to the needs, care for the flock, lead them, guide them, provide for them, as a shepherd would the sheep of his flock, in a Christ-like fashion, of an esteemed member of the congregation, as an elder would be. But they're also called overseers. That's where there's a little bit of difference of opinion that people have. This is exactly what an overseer does. I know people that think that mainly what an overseer does is inspect. So kind of like the, the captain of the troops that comes out to the formation to inspect the troops, how the troops are doing. And looks at someone and says, you didn't shave as well as you should, so you've got to get that corrected. And you're there, you haven't shunned your shoes as you should have, so make sure you get that taken care of. And so it's not that kind of inspection. It's not that kind of work that the overseer does. It's not to inspect the flock. I've heard people go so far as to say, well, my responsibility to oversee the flock is to inspect them. That means I should have access to your bank accounts. I should have access to your will. I need to inspect everything about your life. I need to be able to go in your house and look into your cabinets and look into your refrigerator, see what's there, because I have a responsibility to inspect every aspect of the lives of God's people. Folks, that's craziness. I know, I've heard people assert that. I've heard people tell me they know pastors that have employed that kind of sense of their responsibility to oversee. But that's not what an overseer does, biblically speaking. The episcopoi—that's the word that's translated as an overseer or a bishop in our Bibles—many times in its use, It would speak of the work of a guardian, somebody that would protect, care for, again, like a shepherd would. There would be the emphasis upon the responsibility of the overseer to guard the flock, the dangers of the world, to be a protector and a defender of the people of God. I think it's in that sense that the work of the overseer is to be understood. is that the responsibility of the overseer is to protect the flock from danger. In the letter to Titus, Paul says, concerning the overseer, I believe he does use the word overseer in chapter one. Let me look at Titus very quickly. Well, it does—well, definitely. Typically, it's overseer. Here it does seem to be elders. Acquaint elders in every town is how to direct you. But the work of the elder, the work of the overseer—oh, there it is, verse 7. For an overseer, an overseer, as God's steward, must be. So Titus calls him an overseer. The elder is an overseer. And part of what the overseer is supposed to do is he's supposed to, in verse 9, hold firm to the trustworthy word it's taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in the sound of it, but then he doesn't just go home. Say, I delivered the goods, I preached the sermon, told them what they need to know, told them what they need to do, so I've done my work and I can go home. But no, he has to hang around a bit longer. But also, rebuke those who contradict it. You might give out the truth and say, well, whoever comes after me, let them say what they will. I told them the truth. No, no. You have to rebuke those who contradict sound teaching. He says, for there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers, deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party, and they must be silenced. They are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain, would not be taught. So, Philistia has a responsibility to confront the gangster, to confront the contradictor, to confront the one that comes among the congregation and says, you ought not to listen to sound teaching, you ought to listen to my teaching. You ought to protect the flock. People who come in amongst the people of God and look to uproot the people from sound teaching, look to bring dissension, look to bring trouble, look to bring division, look to bring danger to families. No, no. You have to love God's people sufficiently to say, I'm hanging in there for a long haul to oppose this poison that's entering into the body, and to make certain that it doesn't have an effect that's ruinous, an effect that's going to be destructive, an effect that's going to nullify the impact and influence of sound doctrine. In that sense, we oversee. We see the dangers. And we warned. We see the false teacher coming, and we stop him in his tracks. Before he can spew his noxious poison, you take him aside and say, well, let me talk to you a while. We had a guy that came here not too long ago who had his agenda. And he seemed like a nice fellow, a little strange. couple points, but he'd be a nice enough fella, came up to me afterwards, says, that was a great, great Sunday school you did. And, uh, or maybe it's after the sermon, great sermon. And I had no idea he'd been going around and beginning to talk to people about his, uh, his thing that he was into. And then finally he got my ear and I sat down with him for, uh, well, probably longer than I should have. I know you guys were waiting in the, in the room to someone to pray over the meal, and I wasn't there to do it. But I had a responsibility to find out who this guy is, what he was saying, what he was teaching, and he wasn't very receptive to anything I had to say. But he realized that I was going to withstand him. He realized that he was not going to be successful in propagating his strange teaching. I don't think any of you would have gotten sucked up the windpipe by it, but nonetheless, that's my responsibility. That's what an overseer does, watches out for the flock, seeks to care for them and to guard them against evildoers and troublemakers who would bring division and bring upsetting influences upon the people of God. Well, I've talked myself out this morning. I don't know if you have any questions. If you do, write them down. God willing, we'll get together in the building, maybe next week, hopefully, and you could ask them then. I hope this has been at least profitable in setting something of the Old Testament foundation, something of the language of how the Bible looks at spiritual leadership, and God willing, next week we'll take this a bit further ultimately getting to see the qualifications of those who would hold office in the church. Let's pray together. Father, we're thankful for this time to consider these matters from your word. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to go over these passages again and glean from them the things we need to know as we would think about the subject of leadership in our church, particularly as the people in leadership or at the age where their ability to serve is coming to an end. As the church would consider those who would lead the church in the future, that we would have a firm foundation of understanding what your word would require of us, that you would supply for us those leaders that would lead the church in the years to come. So hear our prayers and bless your people. Bless us as we would worship you in the morning hour. And we pray you'd keep us in your care and keep us safe, Lord, incense and clement weather, and be pleased to help us to fill our hearts filled with love, devotion, and concern to serve and honor you, the great God of our salvation, as we'd ask these mercies in Jesus' name, amen.